Sprinters whose best view figured to be the soles of McCorory's shoes suddenly have hope that they may hit the finish line first. Perhaps a dozen girls track teams that were wondering how a second-place state trophy might look in their case now see the possibility of carrying home larger hardware.

"If you've got a Francena, you can basically count yourself 30 points in any meet that you run in," said Williams, the ultra-successful coach who has led the Bruins to six consecutive state track titles, indoors and out.

"With that luxury, that makes life really nice," he said. "Without her there, we don't have any room for error. Everybody has to do their job, everybody has to have a successful day. And that's difficult to go to a meet with six or seven kids and everybody has to run their best. So we'll have to work around that."

Read that and it sounds as if McCorory's season and, in effect, her high school career are finished. Not true. Not yet, anyway.

The past couple of days were spent getting evaluations of McCorory's injured right hamstring, which she pulled during the 100-meter dash last Friday night at the Southern Track Classic in Richmond.

"When I saw her fall, I was at a loss for words," Bethel teammate Crystal Carrington said. "She normally doesn't get hurt. She doesn't fall."

Indeed, this is McCorory's first significant injury, which makes for an unfamiliar recovery process, in addition to the plain lousy timing.

"That doesn't give us much information about what type of healer she is -- quick healer, slow healer, whatever," Williams said. "So we've got to play a lot of things by ear."

Miraculous or glacial healer, McCorory won't run in this week's Peninsula District meet, nor the Eastern Region meet next week. The national record-holder and multiple state champ already has met qualifying standards for the 100, 200 and 400 meters for the state meet the first weekend in June.

Williams has several athletes on the mend, which will make for an interesting next couple of weeks.

"We may be a wild card at the state meet," he said. "Just show up and it'll be the first time some of our kids have run in two or three weeks. Nobody'll know what to expect. Including me."

McCorory was not present at Monday's practice, but it had nothing to do with the injury. She was taking care of other business, Williams said, and was not expected to rejoin the team for practice until Wednesday anyway.

Carrington, whose own hamstrings have been bothersome lately, consoled her teammate Friday night and commiserated with her Monday.

"Physically, she was in pain, but emotionally -- she's so great and she expects so much out of herself -- I think she felt like she let herself down," Carrington said. "She was better (Monday). She was more like her usual self."

Carrington said that she and the rest of the Bruins were preparing to compete without McCorory, who will run for Hampton University next year.

"If she's standing next to me, great," said Carrington, a junior. "If not, we've got to prepare to get the job done without her. We have the physical ability to do it, but we have to prepare ourselves mentally. Since she's the only senior, it's also good preparation for next year."

Williams knows that the equation changes if McCorory is sidelined, though he believes that the experience and success of her teammates carries weight in the crucible of state competition, particularly against teams and athletes who have not won titles.

He also understands that championships aren't guaranteed, even with an athlete of McCorory's caliber.

"There is a perception that the program is all about winning, and it really isn't," Williams said.

"It's about the kids developing and doing the best they can. I'm going to be happy if we go out and compete to the best of our ability. What happens from there, we can live with."

Dave Fairbank can be reached at 247-4637 or by e-mail at dfairbank@dailypress.com *